As Britney reveals she aborted Justin Timberlake’s baby - I’m surprised by how mainstream media welcomes terminations

The topic of abortion has hit the headlines in many ways recently. Britney Spears revealed in her new memoir that she had an abortion more than 20 years ago during her well-documented romance with Justin Timberlake.

She puts the onus of the decision to terminate the pregnancy on Justin’s belief they were too young to be parents, claiming she wanted to keep the baby and eventually marry Justin. She offers a disturbing description of the intense pain of a pharmaceutically induced abortion as the life they created together agonisingly died. All the while Justin attempted unsuccessfully to console her while singing and playing guitar. 

She offers a disturbing description of the intense pain of a pharmaceutically induced abortion.

The scene is like something out of a modern Shakespearean tragedy. Only this is real life. They’re pop-stars and real people. There’s was a real baby. I think back on Britney’s very publicised life through a new lens… from her shocking televised mental breakdown to her unsucessful marriage, could things have been different? If Justin had married her, the two had raised a family, would she be more settled than now in 2023, dancing around in memes with wild eyes and cutlery?

Statistics from pro-life group Live Action suggest 64 per cent of women who’ve had abortions do so because an outside party rejects the pregnancy. Women coerced into abortion are 65 per cent more likely to suffer depression and six times more likely to commit suicide than women who gave birth.

All of this was playing on my mind as I tuned into the new series of my favourite streaming series, The Morning Show, starring Jennifer Anniston and Reese Witherspoon, debuted its third season on Apple TV recently. I’ve eagerly anticipated the release of each episode but it soon became apparent that the overturn of Roe V Wade by the Supreme Court in America and a strong pro-abortion sentiment were major plot points of the entire third season.

You can imagine my downturn in feeling. You might say, just stop watching but I’ve enjoyed the show so much that I wanted to continue to see how the story develops. Instead, I’ve come away from each new episode like I’ve got a bullseye on my forehead. Most recently, a character incensed by the overturning of Roe V Wade wrote in lipstick on a bathroom mirror “Abort the Court”, shoving her middle finger up for a social media aimed revenge selfie. A background character discusses back alleys and coat hangers. And those who support the end of legalised abortion are clearly painted as the enemy of women everywhere.

Women coerced into abortion are 65 per cent more likely to suffer depression and six times more likely to commit suicide than women who gave birth.

Instead of feeling the inclusive fuzziness of being sucked into streaming television, I feel like I’m on the outside of a very carefully elevated snow globe of virtue signaling. Me and my  right wing, hillbilly, Christian beliefs don’t belong here (even though I’m a black, female, New Yorker living in Scotland)… what a conundrum!

We have a tale of two narratives here. One from popular culture; The Morning Show’s caricatured depiction of activist journalism promotes the lie of post-abortive “liberation”, abortion as saviour. Then there’s real women, like Britney, beneath the lights and celebrity image, in need of THE Saviour, Jesus. He alone brings forgiveness, restoration and healing from the trauma abortion can truly cause.